WASHINGTON POST
T. Rees Shapiro | February 7, 2013

The book Laura Murphy wants removed from Fairfax County classrooms is considered a modern American classic. It is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a masterpiece of fiction whose author’s 1993 Nobel Prize in literature citation said that she, “in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality.”

But Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” Murphy said, depicts scenes of bestiality, gang rape and an infant’s gruesome murder, content she believes could be too intense for teenage readers.

Read on…

DAILY PROGRESS
Pat Fitzgerald | April 25, 2012

A Greene County couple wants an award-winning book removed from William Monroe High School.

Georgie and Steve North say they are upset that their son, Nicholas, a freshman in the William Monroe Academy, was given the book “Feed,” by M.T. Anderson, to read. They say the book is “trash” and “covered with the F-word.”

According to the inside cover of the Candlewick Press book, “Feed” is about “Titus, whose ability to read write and even think for himself has been almost completely obliterated by his ‘feed,’ a transmitter implanted directly into his brain. Feeds are a crucial part of life for Titus and his friends. After all, how would they know where to party on the moon, how to get bargains at Weatherbee & Crotch, or how to accessorize the mysterious lesions everyone’s been getting? But then Titus meets Violet, a girl who cares about what’s happening to the world and challenges everything Titus and his friends hold dear. A girl who decides to fight the feed.

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WASHINGTON POST (The Answer Sheet)
Valerie Strauss | August 16, 2011

Here’s a relatively new one in the annals of book challenges: A Virginia school district has removed from the required sixth grade reading list at one middle school a Sherlock Holmes book because a Mormon parent complained about the way it portrayed Mormons.

Josh Davis, chief operating officer for the Albemarle County Public Schools said the school board decided a few days ago to honor the request of a group of parents, “one in particular of the Mormon faith,” who complained earlier in the year.

The book in question is “ A Study in Scarlet ,” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a classic novel that was the first to present the character of the brilliant sleuth Sherlock Holmes and his friend, Dr. Watson. Doyle wrote the novel in three weeks; it was published in 1886.

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Related article:
What would Sherlock Holmes say about book ban?

THE DAILY PROGRESS
Aaron Richardson | July 18, 2011

Albemarle County Public Schools may soon remove Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Study in Scarlet” from sixth-grade reading lists.

The board will vote on whether to remove the book at its regular meeting tonight. Though the book could be removed from class reading lists and the required curriculum, it would still be available in school libraries.

A parent asked that the book be removed from reading lists because, he says, it casts Mormonism in a negative light. After reviewing the work, a School Board-appointed committee determined that it wasn’t age-appropriate for sixth-graders. According to the parent’s complaint, the book repeatedly refers to Mormons as violent and intolerant, and accuses them of murders and kidnappings.

“When you look at the work, the basic question is, if someone says it shows a lot of cultural or religious bias, you have to look and see if that work has enough value to where the regard for the work outweighs the cultural bias,” county schools Secondary Education Director Matt Haas said.

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See also:
School Board likely to remove challenged book (NEWSPLEX.com | Carter Johnson, June 28, 20110

Committee member explains decision on controversial book (NEWSPLEX.com | Chris Stover, July 7, 2011)

Board delays decision on controversial book (NEWSPLEX.com | Jessica Jaglois, July 15, 2011)

School board delays vote on challenged book (106.1 FM–THE CORNER)
Text:The Albemarle School Board has deferred its vote on a parent’s challenge that involves a book at Henley Middle School. The county got complaints about the way Sir Arthur Conan Doyle characterized Mormons in his 1887 book “A Study in Scarlet.” The board heard Thursday night from Tim Dodson, who just completed the 8th-grade at Henley. He liked “A Study In Scarlet”, and views the book that introduced the world to Sherlock Holmes as a classic. The board expects to vote on August 11th.